Supreme Court Releases Sparse Argument Calendar for December

December will be another light month for arguments at the US Supreme Court with only seven cases on the schedule.

Big cases on the schedule released Thursday include the fight over the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of in-house judges on Nov. 29 and the Biden administration’s fight against Purdue Pharma’s $6 billion opioid settlement on Dec. 4.

The Supreme Court has had an unusually slow start this term, hearing only six cases in the October sitting and seven in the November sitting. The justices typically hear two cases a day, but in the December sitting, there is only one case scheduled for five out of the six argument days.

In Harrington v. Purdue Pharma the Biden administration will argue Purdue Pharma’s settlement insulates the Sackler family, which owns the company, from litigation. InSEC v. Jarskey , the Biden administration is fighting a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to undercut SEC’s ability to decide which fraud cases go before in-house judges.